Squire and Countess class extensive guide/Exp and mana farming
Choosing Squire/Countess and word of introduction In my opinion you should take Countess, her speed caps at much higher number (while all characters cap at 99 in speed skill) and they got same towers. Additionally i don't know if it's a bug, but Countess repairs and upgrades faster, and have more dps (maybe that's for only some kinds of weapons, but with exact same equip and stats my squire had much lower dps), only con for her is lower hp than Squire, but with wise block usage you won't really need higher HP. I've started with Squire, and when i was finishing leveling on insane, and when I've started nightmare i was frustrated by his low run speed. Trust me, You'll need more later! So, i know App is easier to play and it's defenses can really nuke anything, like annoying spiders, but will it handle boss? Will simple barricade handle ogre or two? Yeah, thought so. That's why i chose Squire as my first character, it's really easy to play, and if you know some tricks you can build nice anti-air without any App help. You also should read my other guide, about Squire/Countess effective usage and tricks with towers placement. Also remember that most of this guide is about soloing, more players will give you stronger waves, and your def can have real big problems to kill all those waves. You of course can play with others, and if they are good at repairing/upgrading, def will stand firmly and do the job, but don't be mistaken, there aren't too many repairers/upgrades (especially among huntress dpses...). Leveling 'What you should know' To level up faster you will have to meet certain conditions: #Don't get hit #Don't let Crystal to take damage #Only harm enemies with weapons/skills, not towers (this of course won't work if you are builder) If you don't get hit you will get exp multiplier at the end of the wave, same goes for Crystal not taking any damage and damaging monsters only with weapon/skills. When leveling builder you can get exp multiplier twice if you won't get hit nor crystal will, this will speed whole process up. Also to level up fast disable in options auto showing hero menu when leveling up, and lvl up when you will have a break. Don't pick any equip up between the waves, do it in combat mode, they will auto sell anyway. Try to lower your non-combat time as much as you can and you will hit lvl70 and then 74 in an few hours. 'Just start playing' Start is pretty simple, just fight your way through a campaign to lvl 30+ and until you will reach Ramparts, you will unlock your towers, you will get used to this hero class. You can then start farming Ramparts on Hard, and after level 40-50 - on Insane (it's different for every player and his tower stats, just try insane when you feel like it). One, let's say, "condition" for farming Ramparts on Hard is your harpoon dealing about 1500 damage (don't remember exact tower damage stat, but it's about 50 or something), and basically it's a rule of thumb for you to run map solo: harpoon have to one-hit Wyvern. Of course if someone can boost you - go for it, but if you are new, try to feel the game first and play alone. 'The Ramparts: levels 30-70' Layout for Ramparts is simple, before first wave only thing you should place perfectly is harpoon 1, because it will have to kill Wyverns flying from two directions. Rest is as it follows: 2x bouncer 1 (one of them will be sold after first wave), 2x Slice N Dice 1, and mentioned above harpoon 1. If this def can't handle - try lower level or get yourself better equipment. After first wave sell bouncer 1 from the middle and place rest of defenses, remember that two bottom harpoons are not necessary, also topmost barricade/bouncer don't have to be placed at all. But if you have some DUs left and your towers are weak build them just for backup. Below are pictures how to place first harpoon, and two cannonballs on top (placing them in this way is important, so they won't let anything go alive). Ramparts Hard and then Insane will give you nice items (lvl 60 items on Insane), and really decent exp per time spent on it. In my opinion this map (solo) is second after Glitterhelm Insane played with four players for exp and mana farming. 'Get Yourself a weapon: level 60+' That means farming Ogre Crush challenge on hard, you will be awarded The High Five - really great starter weapon. Defenses layout is really simple there, put SnD, or Bouncer, or Spikes in front of middle doors, 2-3 cannons behind it (or cannon/harpoon mix), then do the same on the sides (top floor) and o bottom map. Like Challenge name says: ogres will crush on your defenses. Feel free to modify this layout, image only shows where to place it, so it will work. What i did was farming until i got decent stat H5 with good Poison base damage, then i upgraded it. I know that upgrading elemental damage isn't great idea, but when my defenses were good for insane and did most of the job my poison H5 was crushing most mobs with one hit. In my opinion leveling elemental damage is good for hard and insane difficulties. 'Glitterhelm Caverns: levels 70-74' Again you will have to start by checking if your Harpoons can one hit Wyverns. If so, go for Glitter. This map is really frustrating for a squire with such low run speed, so again i strongly recommend you to level Countess instead. Because this layout (especially with lower towers stats) requires some monk's help i suggest you to level one up. Monk don't have to be even lvl 70, just some aura damage and hp will do it's job, you can boost your monk on Ramparts insane to lvl 60 or so, it will do. I won't be writing long guides, just check image on right, that's the way you should lay down your defenses, and you also can check my video below with commentary on how to do it step by step (i did some things little differently there because my towers are pretty decent, but for starters use layout from image on right). thumb|300px|left|Glitterhelm Caverns Insane solo Squire/Countess run with a little Monk help Mana Farming 'It's a NIGHTMARE! Or is it?' Fist thing you'll notice is that squire is TERRIBLE for Nightmare farming, honestly, you have low tower stats, your towers can't handle spiders, so how you should farm mana on Nightmare? Buy equipment, you can buy armor for 4-5m for each item, but you will have to spend some more on decent weapon. Also farm yourself App Guardian with at least 30^ so it will boost four towers. You should have some mana now, but still it's not enough. Yeah i know. You need to farm, Glitter Insane, whatever you feel gets you best mana. You just need some stats to do at least SOMETHING to monsters on Nightmare. Good news is - you can now go and try Nightmare, ye that's right, Endless Spires first wave (read about it in next chapter). What you need is about 500 tower damage and 400 tower hp. Radius isn't so important, same goes for attack rate, but you shouldn't have less than 250 of them. You don't need good weapon yet, you H5 with upgraded elemental damage should be enough, but for future notice in weapon look for nice tower stats and good base physical damage (like 1500-2000) and upgrade it to 8-12k. Remember that best weapon you can get is Shield or Gauntlet type because those are fastest. I wouldn't recommend axes and hammers, those are slowest squire weapons in game and i strongly believe that faster weapon is much more potent that higher damage slow one (for sure it will deal with spiders better). So, you got your stats up? Yeah, i know it took some time, but no worries, you will waste even more time now! Unfortunately Squire for solo Nightmare is almost useless with low stats, but you can get yourself a monk to level 70 on gltter insane with strategy you know now, it will take an hour or two, and even weakest auras will help a lot now. 'First attempts: Endless Spires' First thing i have tried was Endless Spires on Hardcore Nightmare (yes, hardcore, normal mode will give you even crappier items). You will probably farm only first wave here, but still it can drop Myth or two that you'll be interested in, or just sell it for 200-500k. And a good news! You can farm first wave of HC NM Spires with Squire/Countess on level 70+ if you have decent Godly items. The point in this are chests, mobs usually drop really crappy equipment, so you need to survive somehow first wave. If you can manage 2nd wave, great, but trust me, don't bother with 3rd with your equip. Of course you will become better with tme and first 3 waves you will easily solo, but until then.... Using layout on right put in front of every crystal 2 bouncers and one harpoon behind, then add rest of harpoons after first wave. When wave with first ogre coming from top comes put SnD or spikes near the stairs instead of bouncers at the crystal, so ogre will stop and try to handle it while harpoons will kill it. Decent App guardian really helps here (and upgrading/repairing of course). After each wave open chests, pick up what you think is worth your attention, wait for rest to be sold at the end of the build phase and restart on wave you can't manage. And RUN! Run from spiders, try to lure them under your bouncers/harpoons, kill them if you can but don't get slowed. If you can manage wave with first ogre, and you are SO CLOSE to complete next wave, with two ogres it's time to go for step two. 'Again equip upgrades' You have some almost decent equip now, but you are in dead end, can't go on better maps/challenges and mana from first 2-3 Spires waves is simply not enough. That's pretty hard time because you will need to buy yourself much better armor now and you can have not so much mana for it. Farm more, sad but true. And try not to upgrade your crappy Mythicals, it's a waste of mana and you will sell them anyway (more than likely to tavernkeeper), upgrade your items to the point where selling them to tavernkeeper will bring profit. You will need now: #Set for bonus, remember that you can't mix mythical with godly or lower, if you want Mythical Leather set, you have to get all four Mythical Leather parts of armor. #700+ tower damage, preferably 600 tower hp (can be lower) and at least 350 tower attack rate and radius (again, the more the better). #And for the first time you will need more resists. I have bought set of items that gave me stats similar to those mentioned above with 10-15% base resists, and leveled resists in it, so i got 30%+ generic resistance on each item (after 30% you can only upgrade it every 10 levels) and 15-20% on elemental resists (on each item). Remember that on NM resists are cut in half but if you have more than 90% (you wont see it in your stats, 90 is cap), on nightmare you will have 50% from resist above cap that you have. 'Trying more: Raining Goblins, Ogre Crush, Uber (lifestream hollow) Monster Fests' Lets start with Raining Goblins now (fortunately you won't need resists here). The layout for this map is really simple, start with bouncers like on image, after wave starts you will have to quickly kill something and add numbers 2 and 3. You have 2 options there: bouncers, or harpoons pointing right at points 4 and 5 where most mobs spawn). Then add Barricade or another Bouncer on number 1. So your options are (all harpoons facing right on map): #3 bouncers on points 1,2,3, and maybe harpoon pointing at crystal at point 6. #3 harpoons on points 2,3,6 and spike barricade on point 1. #3 bouncers at 1,2,3 and two ensnare auras at 4 and 5 (and one elsewhere if you want Either way - I've tried all above options and all works. My favorite is option 2 with 3 harpoons and Spikes. Now you only need to collect mana and upgrade/repair. This map isn't too good for mana farming, but i strongly believe that it's much easier than spires you were doing for some time, and it have potential of dropping nice Goblin Overlord's Charge (you will always get it after completing this challenge). And instead of selling all the staffs you can do two things: set a shop with about x2 or x3 vendor price, or upgrade base damage of every staff until mana invested will be higher than profit from selling it to tavernkeeper. This method is slow, but for sure pretty easy for squire. ---- Next option is Ogre Crush Challenge for Ogre Party Hat rewarded at the end. I've done it quite some times just because i wanted to drop decent Hat for my monk (having decent 74 monk now can be really useful for Endless Spires tactic i will show you soon). Tower layout for Ogre Crush is pretty much the same as it were earlier when we were farming The High Five on hard, but for sure you will have to run a lot more than on Goblins challenge to aid and repair towers. Again, for this challenge you won't need resists because if you want to repair/upgrade blockades you always can stand behind an ogre attacking it so you won't get hurt. ---- And now something I've done to get some decent mythicals and some nice amount of mana: NIGHTMARE Uber Monster Fest (and/or Uber Lifestream Hollow MonsterFest). There is no tactic for a solo squire here. Just collect mana from chest and build some towers. Start with 1-2 cannon or harpoon near each spawn point, then going to the middle build more offensive towers with some barricades or bouncers. To do it with crappy equipment you will have to set up good offense that will be destroyed (but before that it will kill as much monsters as it can), and then build more during the wave. Kill the spiders, build towers where ogres or bigger pack of other mobs are, build build until at the end of the wave you will be surrounded by your def attacked by last one or two ogres and some other mobs. Honestly this "tactic" is so chaotic that it makes sense. You will have to kill spiders spread on the map to finish up within time limit tho. In those Monster Fests challenges mana gain is pretty decent (4m+) considering 5-7 minutes for wave and time before and after first wave (never, NEVER bother with 2nd wave with "starter" myths). Also you can find some nice Mythicals there, maybe not too great, but still. Monster Fest require you to have better resists tho, because you will have to run through packs of monster few times. 'Back for MORE: Endless Spires again! Over 100m in an hour or less' Ok. There goes nice farm! At last some decent numbers. One full Spires run on NM Hardcore will net you 20m+ for maximum 12 minutes of play through (after some upgrades I'm doing it in 9 minutes). If you are lucky first waves will grant you 4-6m with auto selling items, and after last wave check your mana, then "Return to Tavern", there will be 10-15m more. We will have to go back to Endless Spires, again Nightmare Hardcore, but now we will finish it! I can't remember what stat i had when i was doing this, what I'm sure of is App Guardian with +4 towers, +20 boost and about 50 range (farmed on summit hard). Also i had about 50-60% generic damage resist and ~30% of rest (talking about nightmare of course). About tower stats i this i had ~800+ tower damage ~800 tower hp and ~500-600 range and attack rate. My Squire had ~70k hp, and Count with same equip ~53k. And my weapon was upgraded to 10k dmg. So... you won't do it. Yeah, i got to last wave and my auras were weak to handle 2 ogres at a time, i had to boost my monk to lvl 74 and farm him decent Ogre Party Hat and some armors while i was upgrading my tower damage on Countess. But still you will get to last wave almost for sure with this layout. You have to start with 1 Cannon and a Bouncer on the sides, and Spikes + harpoon on top, after the first wave start with four bouncers for anti-air then build the rest. Before Wave 6 you need to switch to monk and build Ensnare and Str Drain auras. You will need to upgrade Str Drain aura as much as you can, also bottom right Spikes Barricade will need to be upgraded for defense (ogre). For off you will need to upgrade all harpoons on top, and cannons on the right, rest is totally optional. I have found that 3 upgrades of top harpoons, right cannons, right blockade and Str Drain aura will to its job, rest is totally up to you, but top 2 cannons and middle bouncers are only anti-spiders support, so it won't need to be upgraded much. What this tactic requires apart stats: *'App Guardian' - and that's crucial! +4 towers and ~+20 boost is a must for this, it's because you will be aiding towers when they are attacking ogres, without Guardian boost killing an ogre in last wave could take ages! *Running from spiders and eliminating them and only them *Repairing/Upgrading *Decent monk 70+ or 74 with crap myth equipment Why i think this layout is good? *Top choke point (chokiest of choke points here) is guarded from spiders thanks to 2 Cannons, and 2 side harpoons guarding not only front, but sides (spiders can sometimes hide near top left cannon, build it closer or just remember that and kill spiders there once in a while). *Side cannons can kill monsters at the spawn points. One spider or any other mob will trigger cannons to shoot, and then cannon balls will bounce almost to the end of map, so 2 sides are extremely well guarded What is bad here? *Anti-air. Simple: Harpoons are targeted by the spiders, bouncers strangely not, or not so often, and even if the are, they can defend themselves. But Bouncers won't guard against wyverns that well, especially from the wyvern flying from the left side, because it flies higher than others and often will damage crystal before it gets killed (still - i never worry about bottom two crystals thanks to self defensive bouncers). What you can change: * Left and right towers layout. Bouncers there are anti-spider def, but spiders can sometimes lock by the inner Cannons. There is alternative turret placement if you want be to be more certain about this choke point (image on the right). Unfortunately that will lower damage on monster coming from bottom because: **harpoons have shorter range than cannons **harpoons don't bounce **harpoons will be dealing with spiders instead ogre So it's better when you easily farm NM HC Spires to use layout from image on the right because towers damage output is high enough. But when starting with NM Spires you should use tower layout from the main map for higher damage on ogre, and just deal with spiders when you can. A video of me doing NM Spires using above layout will be here soon: thumb|300px|left|Endless Spires Nightmare Hardcore Squire/Countess solo with little Monk help 'What next?' Farm, get yourself some good items, then you will be ready for anything. To get even more mana with basically same equipment you can try Endless Spires Survival on NM HC, 9th wave brings some more ogres with it, and thanks to it much more items (probably you will get 15-20m after wave 9). Czokalapik 13:04, February 19, 2012 (UTC)